Environmental Conservation Grants

Funding trends for environmental conservation

While governmental funding dominates environmental conservation, philanthropy fills important gaps, backing research, resourcing grassroots groups, and more. Environmental grantmaking is on the rise, but only represents about 3.8% of all U.S. charitable giving in 2023, according to Giving USA. As climate risks multiply, environmental conservation grants increasingly intersect with climate philanthropy, as conservation groups evolve their work. 

Large private foundations and individual major donors still dominate the environmental funding landscape. That said, place-based private foundations offer crucial conservation investments focused on specific geographic areas. Community foundations are also important both for their local conservation efforts and in their role as hosts of donor-advised funds, through which many individual donors give for conservation.

History of environmental conservation philanthropy

Conservation philanthropy historically took a preservationist approach sometimes referred to as “fortress conservation” or “protectionist” conservation” prioritized the creation of protected areas untouched by humans. This led to displacement of and even violence against Indigenous peoples in several areas. For the last few decades, funders have been moving to a more people-centered approach to conservation that acknowledges and includes Indigenous peoples and traditional land stewards.

Where are environmental conservation grants going?

Conservation grants have, in recent years, seen increasing collaboration between various organizations, often coordinated by intermediaries like CLIMA Fund and green groups that also act as regrantors, such as the Nature Conservancy and Environmental Defense Fund.

Environmental funders increasingly support, as IP has reported, Indigenous-led conservation efforts. Investments in conservation finance, such as the Nature Conservancy’s Blue Bonds for Ocean Conservation and the World Wildlife Fund’s impact investing initiative, have also increased. The Community Land Rights and Conservation Finance Initiative, new international funding mechanism, works to shift both public and private funds to support “Indigenous Peoples’, Afro-descendant peoples’, and local communities’ land rights, conservation, and sustainable management of their territories.” 

Grantmaking for environmental conservation often intersects with funding for climate, animals and wildlife, marine and freshwater, and sustainable agriculture.